


No Promises

by drowninginchamomiletea



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: M/M, No Beta It's 5 AM, Warm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22923316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowninginchamomiletea/pseuds/drowninginchamomiletea
Summary: "Just don't do anything stupid. I won't have you going and dying on me.""No promises."
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 4
Kudos: 89





	No Promises

**Author's Note:**

> I meant for this to be a MCD angst fic following the whole "witchers far outlive humans. Geralt has to watch Jaskier wither and die" but it just... Took the wheel from me and we've got a nice little soft quickie here.

"Ha! Ahah, hahaha, that's, I'll be on my way now!" the bard tittered nervously as he backed away. "Er, good, goodnight, Geralt!" The slim man turned, smiling very unconvincingly, and fled from their shadowy corner behind the inn.

It took Geralt a second or two to react. He was still so _very_ overtaken with the sensory imprint of the last minute's events. The pounding of an accelerated human heartbeat, warm breath against his lips. A light hand on his arm. The whole world slipping away from around him. His own heart thudding against his ribs, quickened breath coming out hot. The body so very _alive_ beneath his hands, its weight settling into his touch. 

And that split second, that glorious instant of lips brushing his. 

And then, _bang._ Down the street: a door, a crack of wood, an angry shout. And it was all gone. 

"Jaskier!" The witcher lurched forward and took off after the bard. His superior speed quickly caught him up to the troubadour, enough so he could throw an arm around the narrow chest. He pulled the man back, then stumbled, sending both of them tumbling in the dirt.

"Geralt, er, I'm not sure if you've, uh, quite noticed, but, um, you're sort of... Hugging me, just a little bit," Jaskier said, slightly out of breath.

"I know," Geralt grunted before pushing himself and Jaskier along with him up off the ground. He turned the bard around to face him. Blue eyes desperately avoided amber ones as articulate lips moved around a stream of anxious chatter.

"I know that was, just now, uh, a bit unexpected. But, and I do say this with affection, please don't inflict any, ah, _bodily harm._ I'm rather fond of my body, and I would rather it not be, er, disfigured, as it were," Jaskier babbled, quickly nearing hysterics. 

"Jaskier!" The name came out in a growl that was much more aggressive than Geralt had intended. Jaskier went quiet and finally met Geralt's eyes. He stared fixedly into the catlike pupils and inhuman yellow irises. "Stop." The Rivian vagabond took a breath and drew the human into a close hug, one hand resting on his neck and the other on his lower back. "We're not the same. Humans and witchers... Can't have happy endings together."

Jaskier pulled back again. Blue eyes pierced the night, searching for words Geralt didn't have.

"Why?" 

"You will die. Soon. A few decades, at most. I still have a century."

"Geralt, I... Mortality doesn't change how I feel."

"It doesn't change how I feel, either." When his words were met with a blank stare, Geralt sighed. "If I tie myself to you, I'll have to watch you age, knowing you'll die before I begin to slow and tire. I'll have to live remembering you."

"Oh. I... I see now." The bard looked down, his eyes settling somewhere just below Geralt's collarbone. 

"I... Would have it any other way." The witcher swallowed the visions of fiery bright sunrises, fountains of color. Red, blanketing the horizon. "If I could shorten my life to match yours, I would." Jaskier's eyes snapped back up to Geralt's, sharp and dangerous, and the witcher shook his head at the implication of the words. "No, I'd never. Not as long as I can hear you in my head, chastising me for _everything."_ Satisfied, the blue irises dropped back down to the shadows. 

"I _love_ you."

Geralt felt something inside him bend dangerously close to breaking.

"I... I know, Jas."

Jaskier shuddered slightly at the new moniker and pressed himself against the witcher's chest. His face was buried in one broad shoulder and his hands were balled up in fists, holding bunches of fabric on the back of Geralt's shirt. Geralt soon felt wetness soaking through the fabric on his shoulder and awkwardly realized that Jaskier was _crying._ For the love of... But why were the constant melodramatics so endearing?

After a moment of internal conflict, the witcher hummed and gently used the hand that rested on Jaskier's neck to tip his head back so their eyes could meet. 

"Jaskier." For some reason, the second he said the same, its owner's lower lip started to treble again. "Dammit— what?"

The bard shook his head hard, brown hair going all askew. Well, more than it already was.

"You can't just call me 'Jas' once and then switch right back to 'Jaskier' in the same tone of voice without skipping a beat." _Oh._

"Jas," he tried again, and the musician simply stared back at him. "Tell me. Truthfully. What do you want?"

"I want to kiss you." The words were immediate, automatic. The next ones, although said with pink cheeks, were just as genuine. "I... You. I want you. To stay with you."

Geralt sighed again, quieter this time. 

"Just don't do anything stupid. I won't have you going and dying on me."

He ran his hand up the back of Jaskier's neck and into his hair, relishing the way the bard instinctively leaned into the contact. He knew his slit pupils were round and more human-like in this darkness, but for some reason Jaskier didn't ever seem to care either way. The human's own eyes flicked around his witcher's face, perhaps looking for something. He seemed to eventually find it, as he nodded slowly and imperceptibly. 

"No promises," he said softly. 

And the moment picked up right where it had left off. 


End file.
